W.E.B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk

WEB DuBois

of Our Spiritual Strivings

In the first chapter of the Souls of Black Folk, DuBois presents one of the main arguments of the book. That is, the notion of double-consciousness or veiled consciousness. According to DuBois, "the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, -- a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world." By this, the author means that the white hegemony has pre-defined what "blackness" is, to the point where Black people are "always…measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." He calls for the self-ownership of African-American identity.

Of the Dawn of Freedom

In this second chapter, DuBois presages, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line." He traces race relations throughout American history and shows how fundamental racism has been to American domestic and foreign policy, culminating but not ending with the Civil War.

3) Of the Meaning of Progress

Chapter 4 of The Souls of Black Folk is an anecdote about DuBois's days as a teacher in Tennessee. The description lends insight into the net effect of racial disparity and related political and social injustice. Du Bois continues to use the metaphor of the veil to describe race relations and racial identity and consciousness. "I have called my tiny community a world, and so its isolation made it; and yet there was among us but a half-awakened common consciousness, sprung from common joy and grief." The sense of community shielded that most glaring element of institutionalized racism: the gulf between "us and Opportunity."

4) Of the Training of the Black Man

In Chapter 6 of The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois further describes the impassable gulf between the White and Black universes. Whites have so seriously and emphatically projected stereotypes onto Blacks that it has become impossible for whites to lift the veil. Among Whites is cultivated the "the sincere and passionate belief that somewhere between men and cattle, God created a tertium quid, and called it a Negro." Education within the White framework means education and indoctrination into the White worldview. Thus, the veil is reproduced and perpetuated. It is thereby more important to empower Blacks to educate themselves -- to remove their veil and become empowered.

5) Of the Faith of the Fathers

Chapter 10 honors the evolution of African-American culture from the diaspora of slavery through the turmoil of torn-apart families and cultures, to the reconstruction of identity and creation of an African-American identity. It is this latter notion that DuBois is most concerned with: the ability and need for Black Americans to self-consciously assess and create a cultural community. Faith is an inextricable part of that community because of the social function of worship.

6) Of the Passing of the First Born

In Chapter 11 DuBois describes his feelings on being a father. He describes the mixture of hopes and fears he had when he first saw his son, who unfortunately passed away. After the death, while Whites taunt him for being a "nigger," DuBois expresses his sense that his son's soul was liberated because he did not have to experience the torment of the Veil. His son's death prompts DuBois to hope even more strongly for a better future.